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On Monday 28 October – the 160th anniversary of the pier’s foundation stone being laid – The National Lottery Heritage Fund announced that our bid for an additional £10m had been successful.
The money was awarded to help restore the Grade II* Listed pier structure, which is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.
This is a significant milestone in our ambitious plans to reopen the pier and create a unique visitor attraction, alongside the RNLI’s development of a new lifeboat station on the island.
The first stage, which includes landside cliff face work, is going well and on-track to finish by the end of this month.
The work is necessary to make the cliff face between Birkett Road and the Pier Master’s Cottage safe. It needs to be done before the buildings and pier itself can be restored.
This phase of work, funded from an allocation of £5.4m from the UK government (formerly known as the Levelling Up Fund), has seen highly-skilled specialists:
- install steel anchor bolts at the top and base of the cliff
- abseil down the 10.5m high cliff face to remove loose rocks and debris from the cliff face
- carefully demolish a small wall at the base of the cliff
- remove damaged railings at the top of the cliff on Birkett Road and install a temporary edge protection system.
Elements of this work are necessary to allow later phases of the project to take place.
Planning applications have now also been submitted by the RNLI, for the pier structure itself, and for their new lifeboat station on the island.
Find out more about the Birnbeck Pier project on our website or visit the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust’s information hub next to the pier.
Restoration work starts in Weston High Street
Shops in Weston-super-Mare’s High Street are getting a makeover to appeal to new businesses and create more jobs in the town.
Work started this week to renovate, restore and bring back into use several units.
This project is part of our ambitious placemaking vision for the town, made possible thanks to our successful bid for £20m from the UK government.
The work, which is expected to complete by the end of March, will include fully refurbishing four units:
- 57 High Street - a vacant unit previously occupied by Fone Zone
- 67 and 69 High Street - previously Fone Fixers and a vacant unit
- 73 High Street - previously Weston Artspace.
Energy efficiency improvements will be installed in all the units to help new occupiers offset premises costs, in line with our commitment to tackle the climate emergency.
Work to three of the units required planning permission. Details, including detailed drawings, can be found on our website using reference 24/P/0514/R3.
A planning application has also been submitted for improvements to Grove Park, including constructing a new toilet block, redesigning the entrance and installing new planting and seating.
Find out more on our website, using reference 24/P/2162/R3.
Find out more about our plans to improve Weston on our website.